Drum

ABSTRACT

A musical drum having a hollow, elongated body which is open at both ends. The centerline of the drum body bends through an arc for at least a portion of its length. A drum head membrane is stretched across one open end of the drum body. Fasteners are provided to maintain the membrane in tension across the end of the drum body. In the preferred embodiment the cross section of the drum body, taken perpendicular to the centerline, is a circle having an increasing diameter starting at the narrow drum head end and widening out to the open sound emitting end of the drum.

United States Patent f 72) Inventor Roger W. North OTHER REFERENCES 21 MRoxbury, 02119 Peripole, Inc. Catalog, Far Rockaway, N.Y March, 1964, 11 i w 3 3 1970 p. 6, copy in 84-453. [22] Fied ar. [45 Patented sopL 7'1971 Przrnary Examiner-Richard B. Wilkinson Assistant Examiner-John F.Gonzales Attorney-Chittick, Pfund, Birch, Samuels & Gauthier 54 DRUM 4Claims, 5 Drawing Figs.

[52] US. Cl 84/411 [5 1] Int. Cl 610d 13/02 ABSTRACT; A musical drumhaving a hollow elongated [50] Field of Search 84/41 1, body which isopen at both ends The centerline f the drum 4 I 56 body bends through anare for at least a portion ofits length. A drum head membrane isstretched across one open end of the [56] Rem-nus CM drum body.Fasteners are provided to maintain the membrane UNITED STATES PATENTS intension across the end of the drum body. in the preferred 1,113,25310/1914 Schreiner 84/411 UX embodiment the cross section of the drumbody, taken per- 1,980,876 11/1934 Peters i i r 84/41 1 pendicular tothe centerline, is a circle having an increasing 2,204,987 6/1940 Gussak84/412 diameter starting at the narrow drum head end and widening2,858,724 I 1/1958 Troppe 84/41 1 out to the open sound emitting end ofthe drum.

2 I! |-J I8 22 u )4 l k DRUM BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This inventionrelates to musical instruments in general, and more particularly, to adrum instrument which provides amplification of and directivity for thegenerated percussion sounds. I

The drum has long been an important part of man s music, but althoughthe advancement of technology has brought great changes to the musicalfield in the fonn of electric guitars, pianos, electronic horn pickups,voice microphones and powerful electronic amplifiers and speakers, theconcept of the drum has changed very little. The new musical instrumentshave been successfully designed for performances directed at largeaudiences, thousand and tens of thousands of people commonly beingpresent at performances of four or five musicans.

All drums presently available have shown themselves to be inadequate tomeet the needs of such situations. Unless amplified electronically, thednims are easily over powered by electric, amplified instruments to thepoint of being ineffective. On the other hand,microphone-amplifier-speaker system are not capable of adequatelyreproducing and magnifying the sound of drum because of the nature ofthe acoustical output signal of the drum. When a drum is struck, aninitial attack signal is produced, followed by an extended, lowermagnitude signal caused by the free vibration of the stretched drummembrane. The normal loud speaker system is incapable of handling theattack phase of the signal without distortion while still retainingenough volume to reproduce the sustained tone. in addition, the feedbackproblems of electronically amplified drums are such that the speakergiving off the drum signal must be faced away from the drums, so thatthe drummer has no real knowledge of what his instrument sounds like tohis audience. Thus, a new approach was needed in the construction ofdrum instruments. The present invention wad developed in response to theinadequacy of the present drum technology to meet the needs of modernmusical custom.

It is a general object of the present invention to provide a druminstrument which allows the drummer to play the drum or a set of drumsin the normal position; that is, with the striking heads approximatelyhorizontal, and to have the sound of the stick striking the head and thesound of the free vibrations of the head after initial impact projectedin the direction of the listening audience.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a drum designwhich produces a unique sound and whose sound, as heard by the drummer,is the same as that projected to the audience.

It is a feature of the present invention that the drum design can befabricated from a variety of relatively inexpensive and readilyavailable materials.

In the accomplishment of these objects, I employ a hollow, elongateddrum body which is opened at both ends. The centerline of the hollowdrum body curves through an are along at least a portion of the lengthof the drum. A conventional drum head or membrance is stretched acrossone end of the drum body and secured to the drum body by the usual ring,hoop and screw-lug assembly. With the drum in the operative position,the drum head is substantially horizontal while the open, soundprojecting end of the drum is in a substantially vertical positionfacing the audience. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, thedrum has a circular cross section perpendicular to its centerline with agradually increasing diameter starting at the narrow drum head end andincreasing to its widest point at the sound outlet end of the drum.

The objects and features of the invention will best be understood from adetailed description of a preferred embodi ment thereof, selected forpurposes of illustration and shown in the accompanying drawings, inwhich:

FIG. I is a view in side elevation and partial cross section of the drumof the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a front elevation of the drum showing the drum as seen by theaudience, or listener;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the drum showing the drum as seen by thedrummer;

FIG. 4 is a side elevation of an alternative embodiment of the inventionwhich has a constant cross-sectional diameter for the drum body; and,

FIG. 5 is a side elevation of another alternative embodiment of the drumshowing a constricted center portion.

Turning now to the drawings and particularly to FIGS. 1 through 3thereof in which like numbers refer to corresponding parts in theseveral views, there is shown a musical drum constructed in accordancewith the present invention and indicated generally by the referencenumeral 10. The drum 10 comprises an elongated hollow body 12 which isopen at both ends. For convenience in describing the drum 10, one end 14of the drum body will be identified as the drum head" end and the otherend 16 will be identified as the sound outlet end of the drum structure.

A conventional skin or plastic membrane 18 is stretched across the drumhead end 14 and held in place by the usual ring 20, hoop 22 andscrew-lug assembly 24. Collectively, the ring, hoop and screw-lugassembly provide a convenient means for maintaining and adjusting thetension of the drum head membrane 18 across the drum opening 14.Although adjustable tensioning of the drum head membrane is desirable,it is not required in all versions of the present invention. Forexample, in a toy version of the present invention, the adjustablefeature of the screw-lug assembly 24 is not needed and the drum headmembrane 18 can be permanently secured to the drum body I2.

Looking at the side elevation of the drum l0 shown in FIG. I, it can beseen that the centerline 26 of the drum hUtIy l2 bends through an arefor at least a portion of its length. The angle between the plane of thedrum head 18 and the plane of the sound outlet 16 can vary betweenapproximately l5 and In the preferred embodiment, the angle is selectedso that the plane of the drum head 18 is substantially horizontal whilethe plane of the sound outlet 16 is substantially vertical. In thismanner, the drummer will have a conventional horizontal drum headsurface 18 while the sound from, the vibrating drum head 18 is projectedoutwardly toward the audience. The curved configuration of the drum 10provides sound directivity to the audience in front of the drummer. Thisis a distinct advantage over prior art straight, open-ended drums, suchas the one shown in US. Pat. No. 1,980,876 issued Nov. I3, 1934 to P. G.Peters, in which directivity to the audience can be obtained only byplacing the drum head in the difficult, vertical drumming position.

It was found that varying the size and shape of the cross section alongthe centerline of the bent section of the drum body was an effectivemeans of both focusing the aim of the drum and shaping the sound or toneof the drum. Preferably, the drum body 12 has a circular cross sectionperpendicular to the centerline 26. An increasing diameter, the largestdiameter being at the front opening I6, provided for a somewhat wider vdispersion of sound than a constant diameter (FIG. 4), and

gave a very true reproduction of both the attack and sustain phases ofthe head vibration. A construction and subsequent flaring of thisportion of the drum body, as shown in FIG. 5, proved to create aresonant cavity inside the drum which, for each combination of enclosedvolume and minimum opening area, gave a particular resonant frequency toeach drum. This, in combination with a tumable head, gave each drum adouble tone, consisting of membrane overtone vibrations and low resonantvibrations due to the shell shape. Both these tones were projectedforward by the bent shape of the drum body.

It will be appreciated that the drum body 12 can be fabricated from avariety of suitable materials. I have found that epoxy-bonded fiberglassproduces the desired body shapes with relative ease and has a good tonalquality. The dimensions of the drum are not critical to the inventionand the following dimensions are presented as merely illustrative.

The diameter olthc drum head end 14 can range from 6 to lo inches whilethe diameter of the sound outlet end 16 can vary from 12 to 26 inches.If desired, the drum can have a straight centerline portion of from 2 to20 inches.

Having described in detail the preferred embodiment of my invention,what I desire to claim and secure by Letters Patent of the United Statesis:

l. A musical drum comprising:

a hollow elongated body open at each end and having a centerline whichbends through an are for at least a portion of its length, said hollowelongated body having a circular cross section perpendicular to saidcenterline with the diameter of said cross section increasing from asmallest diameter at one end of said body to 21 largest diameter at theother end of said body;

a membrane stretched across only the smallest diameter end of said body;and means for holding said membrane in tension across said end ofsaidbody.

2. The musical drum of claim 1 further characterized by said circularcross section perpendicular to the centerline having a lesser diameterat a point between the ends of said centerline.

3. The musical drum of claim 1 wherein said centerline bends through anarc offrom 15f to 4. The drum of claim 1 further characterized by saidcenterline bending through an arc of sufficient angular width to permitthe membrane covered end of said drum body to lie in a substantiallyhorizontal plane in the operative position while the other end of thedrum body lies in a substantially vertical plane.

1. A musical drum comprising: a hollow elongated body open at each endand having a centerline which bends through an arc for at least aportion of its length, said hollow elongated body having a circularcross section perpendicular to said centerline with the diameter of saidcross section increasing from a smallest diameter at one end of saidbody to a largest diameter at the other end of said body; a membranestretched across only the smallest diameter end of said body; and meansfor holding said membrane in tension across said end of said body. 2.The musical drum of claim 1 further characterized by said circular crosssection perpendicular to the centerline having a lesser diameter at apoint between the ends of said centerline.
 3. The musical drum of claim1 wherein said centerline bends through an arc of from 15* to 120*. 4.The drum of claim 1 further characterized by said centerline bendingthrough an arc of sufficient angular width to permit the membranecovered end of said drum body to lie in a substantially horizontal planein the operative position while the other end of the drum body lies in asubstantially vertical plane.